The University needs no more title than that – it is just The University, it is the only one of its kind in the world and the only place to come if you want to train in the arts of magic. It has trained the brightest and best mages of the past centuries and from its ranks also have come some of the most notorious. In order to attend this prestigious institution you must show a talent for magic and have enough money to support themselves throughout the three years of training that are provided. Afterwards for those who make it through the full three years, the world really is your oyster!

Magic tends to reveal itself in individuals shortly before the age of university entry (around 18) however there are cases where the very young or much older people have found themselves possessing magical power and in these cases The University will often accept people of an unusual age. There is no evidence that magical talent inherited however there are a number of families where magical ability does seem to run down the generations, however it is just as likely to crop up randomly in someone who has never had a magical relative.

The university is thought to have been founded around 1000 years ago during an age of comparative enlightenment amongst the nations of the world. Before then magic had run wild and those with a talent either taught themselves to control it or didn’t and thus tended to last only as long as the first magical accident. In an attempt to both train their apprentices more thoroughly and as a protection against those who distrusted magic, five magicians came together to found The University – each founder creating a house that reflected their own interests. It is a matter of some debate (often late into the night and rather heated depending on who is talking and how much port has been drunk) as to whether the character of the houses currently is still that of their founding members due to the influence of many heads of house since then. What has survived since that time however is the symbolic beasts after which house is named – these are set in stone (literally in the case of the front quad statue) and are perhaps the only thing not open to debate about the nature of the houses.

People are sorted into houses upon their arrival by an arcane method involving an ancient artefact derived from the faculties of divination and metamagiphysics. Although its creation is hailed as a great achievement it is often hard to predict its decisions as to who will end up in which house and trying to follow the logic of a placement is akin to trying to understand the entirety of a metamagiphysics 3rdr year lecture.

As well as being a centre of learning the University contains a number of potent magical artefacts that have been acquired over the years. Some have more obvious uses than others but students are rarely allowed to handle, let alone use, such items. The most famous item in the University collection are the Sky-Cleaving Wings of Mistroclus the Magnificent however rumours of Seven League Boots and a Cloak of Invisibility have also persisted through the centuries.

The current Master of the University is Godric Yostrum. He has been head master for around 60 years and shows no sign of retiring any time soon. He used to teach in the alchemy department and rumours abound that he made his fortune by making lead into gold and that his longevity is a side effect of other alchemical experiments. He is in general a genial man on the surface but has a piercing depth of character that emerges on rare occasions and is unpredictable enough to keep everyone on their toes around him. Many is the foolish first year who has underestimated him and come out worse for it.

Prof John Hunter, head of Leviathan house and tutor in the honourable school of battle magic.

Dr. Fredrich Triffin head of house Chimera and tutor on an ‘ethics and morality’ module in the third year History of Magic course as well as helping look after the specimens for the cryptozoology department

Prof. Arabella MacMillian, recently returned from an expedition in the south in the Kingdoms of Ebony and Jade, heads up Mandrake House and is also head of the Anthropology course

Professor Andrew Carpenter runs House Kirin and teaches the History of Magic – often using his own many and varied exploits before he joined the University as examples to teach from, occasionally to the irritation of Prof. MacMillian he also tries his hand at teaching Anthropology, even more annoyingly he’s rather good at it.